Eastertide
It is just amazing how many things could occur within only a week called holy, ending on Easter Sunday.Perhaps it is an extended week of eight days, but it is still the Holy Week.
First of all, there was the Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem as a King, called the son of David, which was a traditional title of God’s Messiah.
On the same day he cleansed the temple, flogged the money-changers and expelled the merchants from the church-yard as it can be found in the Gospel of Matthew: “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a robbers’ den."
Then, in the upper room they all gathered for the last supper on the Maundy Thursday, when the Lord instituted the Holy Supper. Later at night on the Mount of Olives he was betrayed by Judas, as well as he was captured by the soldiers who took him to the house of the high priest.
What a night ! It lasted till the rooster cried, making Peter remember his boasting and his Master’s rebuking. Then came the Good Friday, as it culminated in Jesus’ sufferings on the Cross, in his death and then the burial into the cave grave owned by Joseph of Arimathea, near the Golgotha.
Finally the dawn of Sunday brought the light and the victory of the resurrection as it is written in the Gospel of Matthew: “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb (...) The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Easter is an ancient festivity. It must have been existed even before the age of Moses by whom the Pesach or Passover was ordered as a commandment to be kept forever as a remembrance that Israel left the slavery of Egypt behind, because God delivered them.
The feast was reestablished and restructured to become the festive frame around the symbol of the lamb of God, as the blood of the lamb on the door posts was the sign of mercy between God and the people.
As it is written in the book of Exodus: “Then Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Select lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to slay you. ”
This image is a foretelling story how the Christ like a lamb will be sacrificed for all mankind to win the ultimate battle against evil and death. As it is written in the book of Prophet Isaiah in his famous chapter 53: “ Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (…) he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (…) by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. (…) For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Nowadays most people, we can say so, because the world became very secular, do not care about the Easter Lamb, they rather hang around with the Easter Bunny. Like, not long ago at the front of the City Hall of San Francisco they exhibited giant inflated white Bunnies to increase the secular Easter cheer.
This secular world created a new virtual reality. We call it an artificial reality, but as such it is only a secondary one. This reality is not exactly real with its wars, its oligarchies, its Hollywood social classes, with its hypocrisy, its vanity, its hidden or open slavery, with sickening mass hunger and mass graves. It is not real, it is surreal.
This very same brave new world, peace be upon the name of Aldous Huxley, created the Easter Bunny which produces otherwise wonderfully painted eggs in some cultures.
And it started among the Lutheran Protestants in Germany as a cultural phenomenon.
The rabbit originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide. In legend, the creature carries colored eggs in his basket, candy, and sometimes also toys to the homes of children, and as such shows similarities to Santa Claus as they both bring gifts to children on the night before their respective holidays.
This imaginary tale has some Lutheran Protestant roots. It is true, still the rabbit and the eggs represent the material power of the fertility in the universe, the very phenomenon of the procreation of the the biological life. It could be all right until this projected image does not claim to be the ultimate meaning of life and love, especially around Easter. Especially when Easter is the greatest Christian High Holiday ever, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus and his ultimate victory over evil and death.
The Biblical teaching is very clearly saying that the body is more than clothing, and life is more than the body. The exclusive fans of the Easter Bunny completely forget sometimes that the grave of the Lamb of God became empty on Easter Sunday. And not only that. They do not want to know about any Lamb of God, alive or crucified, any Good Friday or any Easter, differing from the chocolate bunnies and ham-rich lunches.
But one thing should be certain for all, that it was so from the very beginning. Not only in modern ages, but also in the contemporary time of the Christ, as the Bible tells us so that (Matthew 27:62-66): “ The chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that this deceiver said, while he was yet alive, that after three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure (sealing the stone, and setting a watch) until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. ”
The outcome shows that they were right, in their own logic, because the grave became indeed empty despite the guards, as the Gospel account continues: “... some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. ... So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the people until this day.”
This covering tale died away very soon, because of the too many witnesses of the resurrected Jesus, like Mary Magdalene, the eleven disciples, and later the five-hundred at the ascension of the Lord.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says himself, not against the popular Easter customs on any continents, but from true divine love that: “ I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. ”
Mankind have dreamed about immortality and invincibility since ages, we tried to deify our ancestors, our heroes and our mighty emperors, however ancestors vanished, heroes died, empires disappeared, sufferings, sickness, war and death stayed on Earth generation after generation.
Thus it must be conclusive to all, as an outcome of the known human history, that we can not save ourselves, we need the mighty Savior, Jesus Christ who died for us in order to save us from our sins, and from the curse of this world.
The life is resurrected in Him gaining full victory over death for the always greater glory of God to whom may praise and gratitude be for ever by the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
